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Many thanks to Saint Asonia’s Mike Mushok who did our second Saint Asonia App Chat this week on the new hardDriveRadio APP! We are so happy fans get to talk to their favorite artists on this platform. Hope you get a chance to join in on the next one. We are looking to get our Kiwi friends, Like A Storm, to do one on Aug 10th! Stay tuned for the start time! And today, their debut album is out!

The band is the brainchild of former Three Days Grace singer Adam Gontier and Staind guitarist Mike Mushok, with Gontier telling us the music doesn’t quite sound like either band: “I’d say it’s some of the heaviest stuff that I’ve ever written, some of the heaviest riffs and heaviest music that I’ve ever, you know, sang on top of, that sort of stuff. And it’s also got a couple of the most straightforward acoustic guitar-vocal tracks. So it’s kind of all over the place, but really it’s mainly, you know, heavy.”

Saint Asonia also includes ex-Dark New Day bassist Corey Lowery and former Finger Eleven drummer Rich Beddoe. The group’s first single, “Better Place,” is currently Number 10 on the rock radio airplay chart. Mushok said about the new disc, “I’m really proud that we created such a cohesive body of work. I hope when people hear it they want to see a show! That’s why you do it.” The group played its first live show at Rock On The Range in Columbus, OH in May, and will kick off its first North American tour on August 14th in Oklahoma City. A fall trek as guests of Seether is also on the calendar.

Yesterday, we hung out with the guys from Atreyu: Alex Varkatzas, Brandon Saller, Dan Jacobs, Travis Miguel and Porter Marc McKnight. and had a great time. It was great catching up with the entire band after their 4 year absence. (I didn’t see them last year when they did their first shows at Aftershock and Knotfest.) Saw pix of Alex’s family. His son Lukas is adorable! Their new album, Long Live, drops Sep 18th and be listening for Atreyu on hardDrive XL the week of Aug 10. Their new tune “Do You Know Who You Are” will be our Smash or Crash tune that week! So Atreyu fans, get out to vote!

I love this! A video surfaced yesterday (July 30th) of 1,000 musicians, dubbed “The Rockin’1000,” playing the Foo Fighters hit “Learn to Fly” as a way to ask the band to come and play in Cesena, Italy .Foo Fighters responded via their Twitter account, writing, “Che bello, Cesena,” which translates to “How lovely, Cesena” or “How nice, Cesena.” The band, however, did not commit to performing in the town. A previous fan attempt to get the band to play in Richmond, VA, by raising money through the sale of tickets, was met with success as the band performed there last September.

Meanwhile, frontman Dave Grohl denied rumors that the Foos were already signed up to headline next year’s Glastonbury Festival in the U.K. after missing last month’s event due to Grohl’s broken leg. Grohl told Q magazine, “I read all of those articles saying we confirmed for next year and just laughed. Total f**king bulls**t. Of course, I’d love to come back and play Glastonbury! But don’t believe everything that you read, kids . . . ”

The Foos will begin the next leg of their North American tour on August 12th in Edmonton, Canada. After breaking his leg in a stage fall in Sweden last month, Grohl has played the first part of the trek while seated on a light-up throne on a dolly track with his leg in a cast.

Pulse of Radio reporting a story from The PRP Deftones singer Chino Moreno invited a fan onstage in Toronto on Wednesday (Jul 29th) to sing “Passenger” with him, after Moreno spotted the fan holding up a sign asking if he could come up and perform with the group. The fan handled the parts originally sung by Tool‘s Maynard James Keenan on the studio version. This is the second time in recent weeks that a major act invited a fan onstage to sing in the Canadian city, with Foo Fighters doing the same thing not long ago.

Faith No More has released a live video for the song “Superhero,” taken from the band’s first studio album in 19 years, the recently released Sol Invictus. The performance in the video was captured during a gig at the Fillmore in Detroit. Faith No More’s North American tour continues tonight (Jul 31st) in Raleigh, NC.

Celebrating birthdays: Today: M Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold is 34, John 5 from Rob Zombie’s band is 44 and JK Rowling is 50. Saturday: Dan Donegan of Disturbed is 44, Chuck D of Public Enemy is 55 and Coolio is 52. Sunday, Wes Craven is 76. Have a killer weekend!

Well, Lou Brutus and I got a nice surprise yesterday! We were both awarded with a gold album plaque from Five Finger Death Punch and Prospect Park Records for The Wrong Side of Heaven, The Righteous Side of Hell. Many thanks! . It’s very loverly and will hang proudly on our walls!

Meanwbile, frontman Ivan Moody spoke with Lou Brutus about their new album, Got Your Six, which has moved to a new Sep 04th release. Ivan said he considers the band’s upcoming album to be the band’s “best material yet.” Moody said when it comes to the group’s sixth studio album, he’s believing his own hype: ”Everybody’s supposed to say this: we outdid ourselves on this one. I mean, this is just by far the most fantastic piece of music we’ve done since, in my opinion, (2009 second album) War Is The Answer. We went out of our way to make sure there were no additional vocalists or additives or anything like that. We just got back to our roots and made music as a band, and it was so refreshing. This was just going in, having fun and being kids again, so I was really, really proud of how it turned out.”

I think this subject needs addressing, so I am borrowing this story in full from my friend over at Blabbermouth.

LAMB OF GOD frontman Randy Blythe has slammed Kevin Lyman over comments the co-founder of the annual Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival made regarding the state of the heavy metal scene and the future of the traveling event.

In an article published on July 8 by Detroit Free Press, Lyman was quoted about the difficulties of booking headline-worthy acts for the festival: “The bands at the top all demand a certain level of fee to be on tour. Unlike punk rock, metal never knows how to take a step back to move the whole scene forward. That’s how punk rock was. That’s how we nurtured punk rock. BAD RELIGION would take a little less than they could on their own to bring the whole scene forward, so we could make sure we had a good [touring] package around them. Metal doesn’t seem to have that concern, never has, never has since I was working in the clubs in the ’80s. It’s always about a ‘me, me, me’ thing.”

Lyman added part of the problem is the fact metal’s audiences have dwindled as the established headlining acts got older. “What happened was metal chased girls away because what happened was metal aged,” he said. “Metal got gray, bald and fat. And metal was about danger. When you went to a metal show, it was dudes onstage; there was some danger in it.”

In a posting on his Instagram account, Blythe addressed Lyman‘s comments, writing: “Y’all know I don’t talk about my band much here — it’s not my thing. This account is for my photography and other creative endeavors — but I must take a moment to speak about something that irked me recently, as I felt it was a bit insulting to our fans and the metal scene that supports my band (especially the females).

“I wanted to wait until we were on tour to address this, soooooooo…. looking at the huge crowds we have played to on this four-band bill [also featuring SLIPKNOT, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE and MOTIONLESS IN WHITE] so far (all singing along to our metal songs and with plenty of girls in attendance), I gotta laugh. I ain’t the youngest dude in the world, but from my vantage point, the metal scene appears to be doing just fine.”

He continued: “I, a dude from the punk scene of the ’80s (ahem… punk rock existed long before Warped tour, [by the way]. I know, because I was there) who somehow became the singer of a metal band, just became a nationally best-selling author, I’ve met plenty of younger fans who have bought my book, and many were female. LAMB OF GOD, a metal band, has a new album out — at this very second, we are in a very tight race with Jill Scott (an awesome R&B singer I am a fan of who has a huge audience) for the very top slot of the Billboard charts, and if enough folks buy the album before Thursday, we will have our first #1 record. Jill Scott has a much larger fan base than us, but metal fans actually buy records. Even if we get a #2 or #3 (again, by the way — not our first Top 10 debut), it will still be huge. There’s tons of younger metal bands too. The metal scene is alive and healthy, and it will continue to grow and the younger bands will become headliners, if the fans support it. So far, that doesn’t seem to be a problem.”

Blythe added: “So, sorry, metal isn’t watered-down pop bullshit for the teenybopper masses, but it is healthy. So thanks for coming out, buying our records, and singing along, y’all! Thanks for forming new bands and keeping it alive! We appreciate and love you! We ain’t pretty, but we are definitely here, and I’m not bald or fat.”

LAMB OF GOD‘s new album, VII: Sturm Und Drang, was released on July 24 via Epic in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast Entertainment in all territories outside of North America. The CD was once again produced and mixed by Josh Wilbur with engineering by Wilbur, Nick Rowe and Kyle McAulay, and was recorded at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, CA and Suburban Soul Studios in Torrance, CA.

Had an excellent time yesterday with Saint Asonia’s Adam Gontier and Mike Mushok! We had some good laughs, connected the boys with some radio stations like The Edge in Buffalo, Q102 in Springfield, MO and 96 Rock in Ft Myers. Good times for sure! Then I did a lengthy interview in before they entered the hardDriveRadio video studios to perform two acoustic version: ”Better Place” and “Waste My Time” from the new album, due out tomorrow! Next week, we should have the songs ready to post on the hardDriveRadio YouTube Channel. Subscribe!

Adam did a killer App Chat on the hardDriveRadio APP on Tuesday night, and tonight at 8 PM Eastern,Mike Mushok will jump on! We had over 1000 fans on there, which is pretty awesome! So thank you for your participation. We’re in the process of booking more aritst chats on the app, so stay tuned!!!!!

And don’t forget, get your hardDrive Live Tour tickets NOW on the tour site. And check out the new Trivium song “Silence in the Snow” on their website!

WOW! Thank you for participating in the live App Chat with Adam Gontier last night on the new hardDriveRadio APP! We had a great number of Saint Asonia fans on board and Adam answered so many of your questions! If you liked that, then stop back tomorrow night when guitarist Mike Mushok will be on the app. 8 PM Eastern tomorrow, Thu Jul 30. We love bringing the artists to you!

Today, Saint Asonia hit the hardDriveRadio studios to do acoustic performances of new tunes, and interview with me. Looking forward to seeing them. Their debut self-titled album drops Friday. Today, the band has released one more song from the disc, called “Fairy Tale.” The collection of veteran rockers from bands like Three Days Grace, Staind and Finger Eleven has already released several other songs, including the band’s debut single, “Better Place.” A video for the latter tune will also make its debut on Friday Hit www.saintasonia.com for links to pre-order the cd.

My buddy Foo Fighters main man Dave Grohl told Q magazine he is doing his own physical therapy for his broken leg along with what the doctors ordered. Grohl said, “Ever since I started playing the drums my right calf muscle has been twice the size of my left from stomping the hell out of my kick drum pedal. Now it looks like a sad little chicken wing so I’ve been doing a little bit of my own rehab therapy lately, which is air drumming along to Led Zeppelin three times a day.” Well, I actually heard that rehab taking place at CitiField in the drum room before our interview. Dave is a maniac. And what if not a drummer’s kick stand to rehab a broken leg! The man’s a genius!

One thing that Grohl told us he is not doing during his recovery is writing any new songs: “Gus, our tour manager, said, ‘Did you want me to put your guitar in the room with you?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And I sat there staring at it like, that’s the last thing I want to do right now. If I were to write a record right now, it would be a frustrated, depressing mess. No way! I want to write songs that make people boogie — I couldn’t even walk! So no, I have not hit some creative stride.”

Grohl said in a recent interview that he initially envisioned the throne flying above the crowd, saying, “At one point, that chair, we thought about putting these cables on that chair, and like flying around the stadium on one of those spider cam things. I was like, ‘You know what, I already have one f**king broken leg. Maybe I’ll just stay put.‘” The frontman also hinted at Foo Fighters taking a break at the end of 2015, saying, “The hardest part about touring is being away from home. At this point, we have families, we have kids . . . This year is maybe one of the biggest years of touring we’ve ever done. Right now we go up to I think November, after that, we might take a little bit of a break, no pun intended.” The Foos next play in Edmonton, AB on Aug 12th.
Deftones kicked off a co-headlining tour with Incubus last week, but don’t expect to hear any new songs on the trek. Although the band has nearly completed work on its eighth studio release, singer Chino Moreno told us why fans will have to wait a little longer to hear the new material live: “We contemplated it a little bit, we talked about it. But with, you know, YouTube and things like that, it’s like, by the time people hear the real recorded version, a live version recorded on someone’s camera phone will be people’s first idea of what our new record sounds like. I really don’t think we wanted to take that step yet. But yeah, it is sort of hard ’cause we’re sitting on all this material that we’re really excited about and really want to play.”The new Deftones album is scheduled to be released on September 25th and will follow up 2012′s acclaimed Koi No Yokan, although the new disc’s arrival could be pushed back to November. Keyboardist Frank Delgado told Diffuser the record does not have a title yet, adding that the band has worked on this album at a much more relaxed pace than before. He explained,”For the last couple of records, we went in and we started writing and we didn’t stop until we finished the record. This one we took our time and it was a good pace . . . It allowed us to think about things longer as opposed to get something done by a deadline.”

As previously reported, Deftones has tapped Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell to lay down a guest guitar solo on the new album. Deftones play festivals in Toronto today (Jul 29th) and Silver Springs, MD on Friday (Jul 31st) before rejoining with Incubus in Gilford, NH on Saturday (Aug 1st).
Tool singer Maynard James Keenan‘s other band, Puscifer, will release its third album, Money Shot, on Oct 30th. The outfit has issued a first single called “Grand Canyon” along with an accompanying video. Keenan said, “It’s extremely satisfying to witness simple conversations and ideas transform into completed sonic landscapes. And to have these stories go above and beyond the initial ideas makes my grumpy heart swell three sizes.”

We asked Keenan a while back how he manages to juggle all his projects, which also include his wine business and, of course, Tool: “You just have to make sure that you’re doing one at a time. When I’m onstage I’m doing whatever project it is, that’s what’s happening onstage. Offstage, I can be on the computer, working on digital aspects or information aspects of the other projects. If I’m in the winery making wine, I’m making wine — it’s pretty separated in that way. But again, it’s just a matter of time management and not wasting a lot of time on extra stuff that doesn’t matter.”

Keenan’s son Devo and Primus drummer Tim Alexander appear on the new Puscifer album, alongside Puscifer regulars like Carina Round, Jeff Friedl and Matt McJunkins. Puscifer has existed in some form since 1995 but only began making records in 2007. The act’s last full-length album was 2011′s Conditions Of My Parole. Tool, meanwhile, will play its first confirmed concert of 2015 on Halloween (Oct 31st) at a one-day music festival called Monster Mash in Tempe, AZ.

Pulse Of Radio reporting Metallica is the subject of a new comic book biography called Orbit: Metallica. Published by StormFront Media, formerly Bluewater Productions, the book chronicles the formation and early history of the group and joins the company’s line of biographical comics that also includes books on Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Miley Cyrus, Prince, Hillary Clinton, Michael Jackson and more.
The StormFront list of comics includes books featuring current events, biographies of the famous and the infamous, and a growing fiction line. Writer Michael L. Frizell said he’s never written about an artist “with such a rabid fan base as Metallica,” while artist Jayfri Hashim, who counts himself as one of those fans, said, added, “Many people get it wrong when they say Metallica is a rock band. They’re not. They are the very definition of a metal band. They were daring, innovative, and the story of their beginning fascinates me.” Print copies of Orbit: Metallica start at $3.99 and can be ordered atwww.comicfleamarket.com. Digital copies can be downloaded on Wowio, ComiXology, DriveThru Comics, Google Play, iTunes, Kindle and more. Metallica headlines at Chicago’sLollapalooza festival this Saturday night (Aug 1st).

Saw the Rise Against-Killswitch Engage show smack dab in the middle of NYC’s Central Park’s Summerstage last night. What a great show! KSe slayed it! Sort of a hometown event for frontman Jesse Leach, who lives not far from the famed open space. They ripped through their greatest hits. Then Rise Against, whose cd The Black Market has to be one of my favorites of this year, showed NYC what they’ve got. The crowd was in their hand and they soaked up the love (and the sweat) like a sponge! (Man, it was so hot out there! I was drenched!) Anyhow, Rise Against announced yesterday they are having such a great time with Killswitch, they’ve added another month of shows in Nov. See Road Rage. Check out this full concert from Rock In Rio from Rise Against.

Back in the New York Groove. Gonna be hot ‘n steamy this week. Ah, I love the smell of NYC in the summer. It seems like……..yuck!
Disturbed frontman David Draiman says as much as 95 percent of the music he’s written for the band has been created while he was high. Speaking with Revolver, Draiman revealed the new song “Fire It Up,” which opens with the sound of a bong hit, was inspired by the singer’s routine. He explained, “There was a big fat bowl before that one. 95 percent of the songs I’ve written in my life, I’ve written them while high. That’s the god’s honest truth.”

Draiman continued “I’ll have a very skeletal musical idea in my head, and then I’ll light one up, go in the shower and let the steam kind of build up. It helps me relax, and I can see the gaps. I can see the holes in the rhythm and the melody and I’ll know where I can go, and what the possibilities are. It helps me be able to perceive everything a little bit more clearly.”

Draiman told us ”Fire It Up” was inspired by a recording session where he sang Disturbed’s new cover of Simon And Garfunkel‘s “The Sound Of Silence” while high: “I was done with the day and I wanted to relax, so I went ahead and I smoked a bowl (laughs). Came back and was high out of my mind and no, no, by no means ready to track vocals by any stretch of the imagination. And they all encouraged me to go into the vocal booth, and I was pretty blown away. I hadn’t heard my voice that vulnerable in a very, very long time.“

Draiman added that “Fire It Up” is more lighthearted than usual for Disturbed, remarking, “Yeah, that’s me saying it: There’s a song on this Disturbed record that’s fun . . . And God knows there’s certainly enough people out there that appreciate the enlightening aspects of smoking marijuana.” “Fire It Up” can be found on Disturbed’s sixth studio album, Immortalized, which arrives on August 21st. The band released a lyric video for the title track last week. The album ends a four-year hiatus for the band and features the current Top 10 rock single, “The Vengeful One.” Disturbed will play its first show in four years on August 21st at the House of Blues in the band’s hometown of Chicago.

Following the release of its new single, “Thank You,” yesterday morning (July 27th), Sevendust has now unveiled details of the band’s 11th studio album. Titled Kill The Flaw, the disc will be released on October 2nd through the band’s own 7Bros. Records. The disc follows up last year’s Time Travelers And Bonfires, which was a collection of new acoustic tunes along with unplugged re-recordings of some of the band’s classic tracks. Sevendust singer Lajon Witherspoon said, “We took some time off from the heavy side of Sevendust, and when it came time to record some new music, Clint (Lowery, guitar), John(Connolly, guitar), Vinnie (Hornsby, bass), Morgan (Rose, drums) and I put everything we had in to what became Kill The Flaw.”

Sevendust has been making records since 1997 and Morgan Rose told us not long ago that he could see the band going on for a while: “We’re like those old vets, you know, that play sports. It’s like, I’m still gonna play up until I don’t think I can play to the level where I feel comfortable. I foresee us definitely doing more records. We love each other, we’re real close right now, and I don’t see us rolling out of here any time soon. I think some of the people that don’t like us are going to be stuck having to deal with us for a little while longer.“

The new disc is available for digital pre-order at iTunes. Fans who order the album will receive an instant download of the first single, “Thank You”, which is now also at rock radio and streaming online. Some of the other tunes on the set include “Death Dance,” “Forget,” “Cease And Desist,” “Not Today” and “Torched.” Sevendust will be the direct support on Godsmack‘s upcoming tour.

Slipknot kicked off their tour on Friday night in Florida and they’ve already started to fill in some more dates in October. See Road Rage. And Saint Asonia is teaming up with Seether for a fall run, which you can also find in the Road Rage section of our site.

Speaking of SAINT ASONIA, tonight there will be a live app chat on the new hardDriveRadio APP! Keep an eye on your cell phone for notifications! Don’t have the app? Download it now for free on Google Play or the app store!

Poor Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins. Sure, he can seem curmudgeonly, but he’s really a cool dude. But when he was asked a seriously off-base question by a fan during a VIP Q&A, he had to be honest and leave the dude in his tracks! Check it out here.

Surprised to read news today of DJ Ashba’s resignation from his lead guitar seat in Guns N’ Roses. He posted a lengthy good bye to fans and much love to Axl Rose, but he is leaving to spend more time with his other band, side projects and his new wife. Ashba is also a graphic designer, and when I first met him, he also had a design company he was running. Some of his designs have been used by car manufacturers and he also launched his own merch line. DJ joined GN’R in 2009.

Hello from foggy Fulton County, NY! Taking in another day off, but working out on the back porch as the sun is trying to rise. Went to the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony yesterday in a packed field in Cooperstown, NY! It was fun, but hot as blazes!

Pulse Of Radio reports this morning the release date of Five Finger Death Punch’s sixth album, Got Your Six, has been pushed back to Sep 04 from the previously announced Aug 28.Prospect Park in North America and Eleven Seven Music outside of North America is releasing Got Your Six. Pre-orders and several exclusive pre-order merchandise packages are live and ready at www.fivefingerdeathpunch.com. Once the pre-order is placed, “Jekyll and Hyde” and the newly released second track “Hell To Pay” are instantly available via download.

Zoltan Bathory said: “I can’t wait to release this album. It’s jam-packed with some of our best work to date, and, lyrically, Ivan [Moody, vocals] dug deep and revealed a lot of his personal struggles. We live life in the fast lane as is, so if you chose to burn the candle on both ends … There will be hell to pay.”

I’m not sure any of this is true, but Pulse also posted a story citing after leaving Alice in Chains and struggling with drug addiction, frontman Layne Staley had an opportunity to become lead singer of Audioslave, according to Alternative Nation.

The discovery was made after the publication connected with Staley’s friend Morgen Gallagher, who also said this about Staley’s drug problems: ““I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years and wasn’t prepared for it. By this point he had quit [Alice In Chains], he had lost most of his teeth, and weighed barley 100 pounds. We talked for a little and when we parted ways, I cried.”

Soon afterwards, Staley was in better shape however, planning to try out for Audioslave, Alternative Nation reports: “That day we were talking and he said he had gotten a call from the old Rage Against the Machine members and they were putting together a new project, and they wanted him to audition. He said he was going back to treatment and then going to L.A. to do the audition in a couple of months. He never made it, so Chris Cornell went and got the job.” Audioslave wasn’t the only band Staley had is eyes on: in 2002, he was set to record vocals for Taproot, but passed away before being able to hit the studio.

Meanwhile, journalist David de Sola is releasing Alice in Chains: The Untold Story on August 4th. Billboard Magazine named the book in its summer “Must Reads” list, writing: “The early-90s Seattle grunge band, long overshadowed by its hometown peers, gets its due in this debut book from a Georgetown graduate student. Taking center stage is original frontman Layne Staley who, like Kurt Cobain, found celebrity and success difficult and drugs an easy out. But there’s also a deep dive into the band’s musical influences and its impact on the broader rock scene, explaining both its roots and reach.”

In other Alice in Chains news, Duff McKagan joined the band on the stage July 22 at the Knitting Factory in Spokane, WA, to perform “Nutshell” and “Man in the Box.” Duff and guitarist Jerry Cantrell are close friends.

Teenage Time Killers, the metal / punk supergroup led by Corrosion of Conformity’s Reed Mullin with Mick Murphy of Birds of Satan on guitar, and featuring contributions from Dave Grohl and Pat Smear of Foo Fighters, Corey Taylor of Slipknot, members of Lamb Of God, Matt Skiba of Alkaline / Blink-182 and other rock vets, is streaming its entire debut album via the New York Times.

The album, Greatest Hits Vol. 1., is comprised of 20 tracks, and is set to be formally released July 31 via Reprise Records. A handful of the songs are deep-cut covers; the instrumentals were laid down at Grohl’s 606 Studios in Northridge, CA. Grohl performs on 11 of the 20 tracks, and for all of the tracks he contributes to he plays bass.

Sevendust have a new song titled “Thank You” airing across various rock stations. An online debut of the song is planned for today, July 27th, and word of the bands’ forthcoming album is expected simultaneously. The album, recorded at Architekt Music in Butler, New Jersey, has been tentatively scheduled for a late summer release. In a recent interview with Loudwire, Sevendust guitarist John Connolly said about the new material: “It’s funny, you come out of acoustic world and immediately you’re, like, ‘All right, let’s get metal again. Let’s get heavy.’”And tonight, the new Sevendust tune will be in Smash or Crash on hardDrive XL with Lou Brutus. The voting ballot can be found on the homepage.

Meanwhile, Godsmack are hitting the road this fall for a North American headlining tour that will feature Sevendust on most of the dates and Breaking Benjamin for a few selected shows. Following a few gigs in July and August, Godsmack will kick off the tour on Sep 22nd in Cleveland, winding down in late October. Tickets at Godsmack.com.

Thanks to all the fans of Tremonti and Trivium! The hardDrive Live Tour tickets are off to a great start! Make sure to tell your friends and get more info here: www.harddrivelivetour.com.

Good day! General on-sale tickets are available right now for the 2015 hardDrive Live Tour with Trivium and Tremonti! You must grab them! This will be THE biggest club show of the fall. Two titans of hard rock and heavy metal. It’s ridiculous that so much talent is on ONE STAGE! www.harddrivelivetour.com.

Well, surprising news hit yesterday about the departure of Arin Ilejay from the drum kit of Avenged Sevenfold. Arin has been with the band for 4 years. Ilejay has been the second drummer to sit behind the kit for Avenged Sevenfold since the death of founding member James “The Rev” Sullivan in December 2009.

Avenged Sevenfold recorded its 2010 effort Nightmare with ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, who was Sullivan’s favorite drummer. Portnoy toured for several months with the band, but by early 2011, he was out. The group brought in Ilejay, who started out as a touring member but played on 2013′s Hail To The King, Avenged’s second straight Number One album.

The group issued a statement saying, ”We are writing this to inform you all that we will be moving forward without Arin Ilejay as our drummer. Arin has been nothing but a positive energy and monster drummer for us over the past four years. We love the guy and always will. We are and will always be grateful to him for helping us to move forward through some very dark times. Creatively though, we felt we needed to move in a different direction.”

The band added, “While we can’t say more at this time, we are excited for the future and looking forward to sharing our plans soon with the greatest fans in the world. As always we appreciate your understanding and unwavering support.”

Apparently Loudwire did a poll asking people who should replace Arin. Overwhelming votes are in for Joey Jordison, former Slipknot drummer. Wouldn’t THAT be interesting! Joey is an excellent songwriter and depending on the direction A7X is intending to go on, this could be interesting.

Disturbed has released a lyric video for the title track to its sixth studio album, Immortalized. The CD is headed for an Aug 21st release and singer David Draiman gave us his thoughts on the title: “Immortalized is hopefully what music does for everyone, in terms of emotions, in terms of experiences, in terms of being people who create it. There’s nothing that can lock a memory in your mind more distinctly than with a piece of music. It’s so easy to remember something so vividly and so perfectly when you score it to something.”

Disturbed has also released the sixth in a series of behind-the-scenes webisodes chronicling the making of the new disc. The album ends a four-year hiatus for the band and features the current Top 10 rock single, “The Vengeful One.” Immortalized is available for pre-order everywhere and follows 2010′s gold-certified Asylum, Disturbed’s fourth consecutive Number One on the Billboard 200 album chart. Disturbed has yet to announce tour plans behind the new record. The band will play its first show in four years on Aug 21st at the House of Blues in the band’s hometown of Chicago.Be listening this weekend for your chance to win a trip for two to see Disturbed at their comeback show!

Meanwhile, Disturbed will join the “Boz Bros Ride” Charity Motorcycle Ride hosted by racing champs Ben & Eric Bostrom Wed Aug 05 at Sturgis City Park, Sturgis, SD. It’s all part of the 75th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Other celebrity riders will participate as well. In a statement, Disturbed said “We’re looking forward to Sturgis and the Boz Bros Ride. Good times and a great cause. Live to ride, ride to live.”

If you have DirecTV you got to watch Wednesday night’s Alternative Press Music Awards live from the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, OH. Rob Zombie, Weezer, Halestorm and others were among the performers and winners at the second annual event. Zombie won the Vanguard Award and was joined for a performance of White Zombie‘s “Thunderkiss ’65″ by Motionless In White. After receiving his award, Zombie recalled in his acceptance speech the very first review he ever got in Alternative Press. According to Zombie it read, “This is the worst band ever. Ignore this band.” He went on to thank the magazine and the fans “for ignoring the review.”

Other performances were Halestorm with Corey Taylor doing Temple Of The Dog‘s “Hunger Strike” and its own “Love Bites (So Do I).” Weezer closed out the four-plus hour show with “Go Away” off last year’s Everything Will Be Alright album, followed by the band’s classic “Buddy Holly.” Other highlights included the first live performance by Sum 41 in three years, featuring a guest appearance from Run-DMC‘s Darryl McDaniels, and Panic At The Disco’s orchestra-backed cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Winning awards were Baltimore pop-punk act All Time Low, as the evening’s big winners, with three awards for best bassist, best drummer and most dedicated fans. All Time Low kicked off the show with a medley of punk classics by Nirvana, Green Day, Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182 and Fall Out Boy, while singer Alex Gaskarth and guitarist Jack Barakat served as the show’s hosts. Other winners included Issues for Artist of the Year, Black Veil Brides for Album of the Year, Bring Me The Horizon for Best Video for “Drown” (note: see their new video for “Throne” here) and The 1975 for Best International Act. Best Guitarist to Tony Perry of Pierce The Veil and Best Live Band to A Day To Remember. Congrats to all!

Speaking of The Corey Taylor, the Slipknot singer has confirmed that the band is considering writing and recording a double concept album to follow last year’s .5: The Gray Chapter. During the question-and-answer period of his recent solo performance in Los Angeles promoting his book, “You’re Making Me Hate You,” Taylor said, “We’ve been talking about a double concept album, which I don’t know if we could . . . But it’s an interesting idea. So they told me to start thinking of an idea for a story. So we’ll see what happens.”

Taylor told Lou Brutus Slipknot definitely has plans to return after the current cycle for .5: The Gray Chapter ends: “Yeah, there’ll definitely be more. I think we’re gonna do the usual thing where, you know, we’ll probably tour until summer next year, and then we’ll take some time off. We all have things that we do in our lives that we’ll take time to go and do, and when it feels right to come back, we’ll come back.”

Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan said recently that he would love to see the band record a double concept album in the vein of Pink Floyd‘s The Wall and the Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Taylor’s other band, Stone Sour, recorded a double concept album in 2012, House Of Gold And Bones.

Oh, and have you checked out the new Lou Brutus and Corey Taylor video interview on the hardDriveRadio YouTube channel. It’s right here!

Of Mice And Men frontman Austin Carlile has posted a couple of updates on Twitter about his recovery from two recent surgeries. Carlile went under the knife in June to correct problems he was experiencing as a result of having Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects the connective tissue in the body and can lead to defects in the heart and even death if not properly managed.

After being in recovery and physical therapy for the past month, Carlile has now posted last Saturday (Jul 18th) was his first day “out of the house” and that he was “getting closer to 100% with every passing week.” He also wrote about his three-times-a-week physical therapy, “Have to keep pushing. Nothing comes easy.” Let’s keep sending him positive vibes for a speedy recovery!

Have a great weekend, y’all! Go get those hardDrive Live Tour tickets right now and tell your friends!!!

Good day people! Gorgeous summer day here in the Big Apple! And today the hardDrive Live Tour pre-sale tickets are on sale! Hit the tour site: www.harddrivelivetour.com, to buy yours today! Fan reaction for this co-headlining run with Trivium and Tremonti has been killer! We are awaiting confirmation of our opening act, so stay tuned!

Bring Me The Horizon has announced the first string of US dates in support of their new album, That’s The Spirit, due Sep 11. The tour kicks off in Orlando, FL on Oct 1. The new album will be a slight departure from the BMTH that you know. According to an interview Oli Sykes gave to England’s music mag, NME, he saidt the follow-up to 2013’s Sempiternal continues his move away from growling vocals. “This time round the challenge wasn’t just for people to be impressed that a screamer’s learned to sing,” he says.“We had to come back with something that would be impressive for people who had no idea of the history of the band.” Listen for it starting Monday on hardDrive XL!

Lou Brutus was on the hotLine earlier tthis week with the one and only Ivan Moody of Five Finger Death Punch! He adopted a new dog, a puppy named Mad Max, that he plans to bring out on the road. Can’t wait to meet him! He also adopted a dog for his Mom! So happy there is such a wonderful surge of people adopting pets so they can go to their forever homes!

My brothers from another mother, P.O.D. announced the Aug 21 release of their ninth studio album, The Awakening (T-Boy/Ume) with three special, intimate shows. The San Diego-based band is taking a break from their national tour to play at the Mayan in Los Angeles on Aug 20th, the House of Blues in Anaheim on Aug 21st and the House of Blues in San Diego on Aug 22nd. The tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster. The first single is “This Goes Out To You.” The Awakening was produced by Howard Benson, who has also worked with . The album features guest appearances from Maria Brink of In This Moment and Lou Koller of Sick of it All. Check out this webisode on the making of the record.

I love the guys in Theory Of A Deadman. They have the best sense of humor. Check out the uncensored video for their new single “Blow.” As you can see, they do not take themselves seriously! Have you seen their Kanye West t-shirt?

I haven’t read this one, but it could be another book to add to your summer reading list. Journalist David de Sola is releasing Alice in Chains: The Untold Story on August 4th. Billboard Magazine named the book in its summer “Must Reads” list, writing: “The early-90s Seattle grunge band, long overshadowed by its hometown peers, gets its due in this debut book from a Georgetown graduate student. Taking center stage is original frontman Layne Staley who, like Kurt Cobain, found celebrity and success difficult and drugs an easy out. But there’s also a deep dive into the band’s musical influences and its impact on the broader rock scene, explaining both its roots and reach.”

The book is based on interviews with sources directly tied to the band and its history, many of whom are on the record for the first time. De Sola also combed through hundreds of pages of public records to pen what many are hailing as the definitive Alice in Chains biography. Among Seattle’s big four grunge bands (Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden are the others), Alice in Chains was the first to achieve gold record status and receive national recognition. With success, came other problems, exacerbated by the limelight. The Untold Story explains how drugs nearly destroyed the band and claimed the lives of founding singer Staley and founding bassist Mike Starr. The book also documents the band’s resurrection with new frontman William DuVall, who took Staley’s place behind the microphone in 2006. I’ll be curious to find out what the Jerry Cantrell, Sean Kinney and Mike Inez think of this.

The next Artist App Chat on the hardDriveRadio APP will be on Tuesday night with Saint Asonia. Stay locked on the hardDriveRadio socials and a text notification on the app for time!

Celebrating life today: Slash turns the BIG 5-0 today! And Live’s Chad Gracey is 44. Have a great day!

ARE YOU READY?!!!! I know I am! Korn officially announced the details of a fall North American tour yesterday (July 21st), on which the band will perform its self-titled 1994 debut album in its entirety at every stop to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its release. The trek kicks off on Oct 01 in Chicago, winding down a month later on Oct 30th in Oakland. A limited number of tickets and early entry packages go on sale today (July 22nd) at 10:00 a.m. local time via Korn.com. Regular tickets for most shows go on sale Friday (July 24th) (Hey same at the hardDrive Live Tour! Singer Jonathan Davis told us not long ago how he thinks Korn has changed in the more than two decades since they recorded their debut: “When we did the first Korn record, the self-titled, we were kids, man. We were just crazy-ass kids, getting drunk every day, just making music, living a dream and it was just insanity. And which I loved — I don’t regret it one bit. But now I think where we’re at 20 years later, I think it’s more about making music and impacting people’s lives and helping people. ” In other Korn news, check out Head & Fieldy in this Metal Hammer video. Maybe we’ll post a podcast of some of our early Korn interviews, or the one where I talked to them about their 20th memories of their early days. It’s killer! Can’t wait to see Korn play their entire debut album. Stone Sour singer Corey Taylor says he’s written “about eight songs” for the follow-up to the band’s 2012 double concept album, House Of Gold And Bones. Taylor gave Lou Brutus an update on the next Stone Sour record in the hardDriveRadio studios: “I’ve got a bunch of new songs, bunch of new music written. Everybody in the band has stuff. So we’re gonna start kind of putting that together early next year, kind of just trying to get demos together to see where we’re at. And then maybe in the fall go in and start making a new album.” Taylor said in a radio interview his new Stone Sour material is “kind of going in a different direction than the older stuff — like a little more rock ‘n’ roll, a little more expanding the range again.” But Taylor added that Stone Sour won’t record until he is finished with Slipknot‘s current touring cycle, saying, “I’ve got Slipknot until . . . June of next year. So it’s gonna be just kind of, where I can, filling in the blanks and getting everything ready for when that happens.”

Our British pals Bring Me The Horizon have set That’s The Spirit as the title for their fifth album, due on Sep 11th through the band’s new major label deal with Columbia Records. Around a dozen songs were laid down for the CD, which was produced by Bring Me The Horizon keyboardist/singer Jordan Fish. A new video and possibly a new song, possibly called “Throne,” are reportedly set to premiere tomorrow (July 23rd). Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes told NME.com about the new album title, “It’s a celebration of depression, a way of making light of it. ‘That’s the spirit’ — it’s quite a depressing phrase when you think about it, the sort of thing you only ever use when you know there’s no positive answer to the situation.” Recording sessions for That’s The Spirit took place at Black Rock Studios on the Greek island of Santorini. (LOVE that island, OMG!) The CD will include the track “Drown,’ which hit Number Six on the Active Rock radio chart, along with the recently issued “Happy Song,” described by Sykes as an “unofficial title track.” Talking about the band’s musical progression on the new set, Sykes explained, “This time round, the challenge wasn’t just for people to be impressed that a screamer’s learned to sing. We had to come back with something that would be impressive for people who had no idea of the history of the band.” Bring Me The Horizon’s Live At Wembley concert DVD was released in June. The set was filmed last December in London when the band headlined that city’s most prestigious venue, Wembley Arena. (I was supposed to go to that show, but I had to cancel due to health issues. SO PISSED!)

And finally today, my friends Sevendust have posted snippets of a couple of new songs. I think you will like what you are heariing. Try this.

For the first time ever, two of hard rock/heavy metal’s titans of the guitar will tour together, co-headlining the hardDrive Live Tour! TREMONTI and TRIVIUM are co-headlining. The tour kicks off in Florida down in Ft Lauderdale on Sep 9th and wraps in Denver on Oct 20th. “We are really happy to be partnering up once again with HardDrive for our upcoming US tour,” states Tremonti front man and founder Mark Tremonti. “We are equally as excited to tour with an awesome band as co-headliner. Our friends in Trivium!”

“We in Trivium are incredibly excited to be going on tour with Tremonti,” commented Trivium vocalist and guitarist, Matt Heafy. “It’s awesome to see two fellow metal and rock bands that are grown from metal, grown from the same bands, grown from the same hometown, to be able to go out and show the world our own brand of metal and show the world what we love to do and how we love to do it. We can’t wait to see everyone out there; we know it’s going to be a great time!”

Interestingly, both of these bands live in Orlando and this is the very first time they’ve ever shared a stage! We are so honored to present this run and will offer up great opportunities in each market to hang with the bands. Tickets on-sale go up Friday at 10 AM ET for most stops. Links will be available on the site once the tickets go up. We truly hope you take full advantage of this great tour where you will get to see the amazing talents of each of these bands and their killer frontmen, Mark Tremonti and Matt Heafy. I can NOT wait to this tour! Find all the dates: hardDriveLiveTour.com. (Note: Millvale, PA now is Pontiac, MI @ The Crofoot.) Watch Tremonti’s video for “Cauterize.”

Well, Boston got a good dose of Foo over the weekend, now didn’t they? The band is inviting special guests on every stop and ‘Bahston’ was no different! Pulse Of Radio reporting Foo Fighters wrapped up the first leg of their North American tour on Sunday night (Jul 19th) with the second of two shows at Boston’s Fenway Park, and frontman Dave Grohl brought up Godsmack‘s Sully Erna to do Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out,” and someone a bit more unusual: Grohl’s orthopedic surgeon. Midway through the set, Dr.Lew C. Schon came onstage to lead a rendition of White Stripes‘ “Seven Nation Army.”

Grohl told the crowd prior to Schon’s appearance that the doctor was “the man that made it possible for me to get onstage and play a show tonight,” adding, “He came to my hotel room today and he f**king checked out my leg and he said, ‘You can rock Fenway tonight’ and I said, ‘Lew, so can you.’” Grohl has played this stretch of North American dates while seated on a light-up throne with his leg in first a cast and then a removable boot.

Schon (wonder if he is related to Neal?) has been instrumental in Grohl’s healing process as he recovers from a nasty broken leg sustained in a fall from a stage in Sweden last month. Grohl told me how the incident went down: “Unfortunately in the heat of the moment, I wasn’t really thinking about anything but rockin’ Sweden’s ass off, and I think we were doing that for the first seven-and-a-half minutes. And then the show came to an abrupt halt as I went over the edge. I’m surprised that this hasn’t happened before, to be honest.”

This is exciting! Pulse also says Halestorm singer Lzzy Hale has contributed guest vocals to Stone Sour‘s cover of the Rolling Stones classic “Gimme Shelter,” which will appear on the band’s next covers EP, Straight Outta Burbank. Stone Sour guitarist Josh Rand wrote, “A big thank you to Lzzy Hale for killing it (on Friday, July 17th) on this track. It sounds amazing!” Lzzy did the vocals originally sung by the amazing Merry Clayton, and you know how Lzzy can belt ‘em out, I am sure she was spot-freaking on for it too!

Stone Sour will release two more cover EPs to follow up last April’s Meanwhile In Burbank . . . . Each EP will feature five songs like the initial disc. The first EP, Straight Outta Burbank, will feature covers of songs from the Bad Brains, Slayer, Motley Crue and Iron Maiden in addition to the Stones, while the second one, No Sleep ‘Till Burbank, will focus on tunes from Van Halen, the Violent Femmes, the Buzzcocks, Rage Against The Machine and AC/DC.

Actually Amy Lee is a good friend of Lzzy’s! Evanescence has announced it will play its first U.S. live shows in three years this fall in Nashville, Dallas and Los Angeles. The intimate concerts will take place at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works on Nov 13th, the South Side Ballroom in Dallas on Nov 15th and the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles on the 17th. The Grammy-winning band last performed live in November of 2012. Evanescence had previously been confirmed to appear at Ozzfest Japan outside Tokyo on Nov 21st and 22nd along with Ozzy Osbourne and Korn. Evanescence singer Amy Lee said in a statement, “We’re already playing Japan, and it seems like a waste to do all that practicing for just one show . . . So to finally answer the question many of you have been asking since the Ozzfest announcement, YES. We’re adding three U.S. dates in November!” Stay tuned for more!

The PRP reports Korn is rumored to be announcing details of a tour to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its self-titled debut album on today (Juy 21st). The band posted on Twitter a “special announcement” was coming at 10:00 a..m PT. The trek, which will reportedly take place later in the year, will feature Suicide Silence and Islander as support acts. Korn’s debut disc actually came out in 1994 and the band has played the entire album from front to back at selected shows over the past year. Meanwhile, I think I may have hit the nail on the head with regard to this mysterious country music project Jonathan Davis has been cooking up in his family-owned studio in Bakersfield. Seems the studio was purchased from a famous pioneer of country music who hails from Bako. I think we will hear songs made famous by that star recorded by some interesting folks like Marilyn Manson and Big & Rich, among others. Wonderers are wondering if/when this info will come to light. But don’t quote me, I could be COMPLETELY wrong.

Happy Monday! Almost didn’t think we would be here this morning. Drove through a small tornado near Albany, NY yesterday. Trees falling all over the place! Scary when you are in a line of crawling traffic along tree-lined roads with no where to go! Whew. Mother Nature was on our side.

OK, so when is this guy going to wake up and smell the coffee? Pulse Of Radio reporting this morning AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd was arrested again on Saturday night (Jul 18th) at his home in Tauranga, New Zealand, according to multiple local reports. The 61-year-old rocker appeared in Tauranga District Court on Monday morning (July 20th) and was released on bail. Police charged him with possessing and consuming alcohol — a breach of the conditions of an eight-month home detention sentence handed down to Rudd earlier this month.

Rudd is expected to return to court on August 3rd to answer the latest charge. He is now facing up to one year in jail and a fine of $2,000 New Zealand dollars. Rudd is also now subject to on-demand drug testing. He pleaded guilty in April to charges of threatening to kill and drug possession following his arrest last fall. He faced up to seven years behind bars, but was sentenced to eight months of home detention and monitoring, along with a stay in a rehab program. Rudd’s son submitted an affidavit to the court which said in part that his father “has a heart of gold and wouldn’t hurt a fly. It’s just when the drugs take over, he behaves how he taught me not to.” Rudd played with AC/DC for 30 years and performed on the band’s new album, Rock Or Bust, before his arrest. Chris Slade, who played with AC/DC from 1990 to 1993, was announced in February as the group’s drummer for its current world tour.

I attended the Foo Fighters’ show Thursday. That was the night for the encore, Darryl Jenifer and Dr Know, bassist and guitarist of Bad Brains, joined the band on stage for two of the legendary DC group’s songs “How Low Can A Punk Get” and “The Regulator.” The night before, Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers joined for a cover of the Faces’ “Stay With Me.” Anyhow, that was the night I got to sit with Dave. We talked about his “throne,” his self-designed chair which enables him to perform and motor himself on stage. He told me how the origins of the chair came to be. “You know when you’re a kid and you’re in school, you sit in your notebooks in class and you draw instruments and stages and stuff like that in your notebook. It’s the exact same thing. If you see the photo, it’s like, it looks like I did it when I was in seventh grade. And it actually happened. And we did the show on the 4th of July, that’s when I realized like, ‘Oh, the throne is the star of the show now.’ People want to see the throne. And you’ll see the throne. The throne’s badass. It’s really fun.”

Stone Sour singer Corey Taylor has revealed more details about the band’s next two covers EPs, which will follow up the April release of its first one, Meanwhile In Burbank . . . . Taylor told us that each EP will feature five songs like the initial disc. The first EP, Straight Outta Burbank, will feature covers of songs from the Bad Brains, the Rolling Stones, Slayer, Motley Crue and Iron Maiden, while the second one, No Sleep ‘Till Burbank, will focus on tunes from Van Halen, the Violent Femmes, the Buzzcocks, Rage Against The Machine and AC/DC. Meanwhile In Burbank . . . was released as a Record Store Day vinyl exclusive and digitally via iTunes. It contained songs from Metallica, Kiss, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Alice In Chains.

Taylor told us how the recording of the EPs could impact the next all-new Stone Sour album: “What it did teach us was that we could go into a room and record live, and have it sound tight, have it sound exciting, have it sound like it was recorded together instead of layered in a studio. And I think that’s one of the interesting things that we might try with this upcoming album.”

Lou Brutus got the royal treatment this weekend at RockFest in Cadott, WI. He’s winging his way home so he can be back on the air tonight and I am sure we will get great stories of his escapades backstage hanging with everyone from Avenged Sevenfold to Shinedown and all the other killer bands in between. Look for Lou’s stage shots too! We’ll be featuring lots of his interviews on both hardDrive and hardDirve XL real soon!

New tunes for your ears! Saint Asonia“Let Me Live My Life” and Bullet For My Valentine“Army of Noise” have surfaced. Saint Asonia will be in the house on Jul 29th. If you have questions for the band, who are also going to be doing our Live App Chats on Jul 28 & 30, start writing them down so you can participate

The PRP reporting Deftones singer Chino Moreno tweeted last Thursday (July 16th) that his son Jakobe‘s band, Death Rogen, was playing its first show in Sacramento that evening. The skatepunk outfit has just released its debut self-titled EP. Meanwhile, dear old dad makes a guest appearance on a newly released track called “Embers” from the upcoming Lamb Of God album VII: Sturm Und Drang, due out this Friday (July 24th).

Birthdays! Chris Cornell of Soundgarden is 51. Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam is 49. Carlos Santana, 68. Andrew Stockdate of Wolfmother is 39.Giselle Bundchen is 35 and Sandra Oh is 44. Have a great day!